Of Parchments and Maps
by WishingDreamer5
Summary: The day that Fred and George feel like they're the luckiest men on earth. And it's not without a good reason this time. With other words, how Fred and George accidentally stumble upon a simple piece of parchment that is actually the Marauder's Map. It's funny how one discovery can change your life so drastically.


**A/N: Surprise, surprise! First of all, Happy Birthday, XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX! Hope that all your birthday wishes come true. This is for you. Hope you like, even though I know you prefer Lily/James. Oh well, maybe next time. ;) Oh, and just so you know, they're firstyears here. And this is the first time I'm writing something about Fred and George, so please be gentle. Anyways, enjoy. :)**

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><p>"I wish I could be there to see that look on his face! Hah, I bet that old Filch's never gonna find out," Fred said, grinning.<p>

"Uh... don't be too sure of that, Fred," was all George could say, when he turned around and stood face to face with the person they wanted to see the least.

Normally, any average eleven year-old would have been paralyzed by seeing the somewhat scary looking caretaker towering over them. But then again, Fred and George were anything but average. They had proved that many times already. In fact, it would have been more fitting if the man (who currently looked like an extremely pissed off tramp whose drink was stolen by some brat, or something of the like) was scared of the two boys. After all, their reputation was almost legendary by now.

"Aha! You're both caught redhanded this time!" Argus Filch roared, triumphantly. "Oh dear, we are in trouble."

It wasn't that strange, though, that he seemed to be enjoying the idea of these two menaces to be in trouble. Ever since they had set foot in Hogwarts, all they did was pulling pranks against people. According to Filch, they deserved to be punished, and good.

"This means imposition, in the least! I'll show you two. Who knows, maybe I'll even let you hang in the dungeons for a week to dry. It would to you good," the caretaker muttered with an evil glint in his normally dull eyes, as he harshly dragged the two boys with him into his office.

Mrs. Norris, his rather scary cat, followed suit. The twins could have sworn that even she seemed to be extremely content about the situation. It was unnerving, really.

"Wait... that's not allowed, is it?" George whispered, looking at his brother.

"He's just bluffing. Just wait and you'll see."

Filch was about to tell Fred and George what their punishment would be this time, when they all heard some loud noise in the hallway and the clattering of something hard and heavy nearby.

"Peeves, I'll get you this time!" Filch cried, already stumbling outside to get the knocker. "Come on, Mrs. Norris."

Without paying any futher attention to them, he left the small room again, in quite a hurry.

"Saved by the ghost," Fred muttered, grinning.

"It's almost scary that he already knows who's doing that," George noted.

"Well, I don't think it's that hard to come up with it, since we and Peeves are the only ones who 'misbehave' in this castle. And since we're already here, it couldn't be us. So it has to be him," Fred reasoned, in a matter of fact tone, shrugging.

"Makes sense. You know, maybe we shouldn't have Dungbombed this floor," George started, giving his twin brother a serious, pensive look, awaiting his answer.

Fred looked back at him and then they both said simultanously, "Nah..." shaking their heads, after breaking into a grin.

"Man, this office is boring. How can one live in such a place?" Fred wondered. "I would have turned crazy if they locked me up here all day. Hmm... now I understand why Filch is such a creep."

He turned to George, slightly surprised that he hadn't said anything. He was looking at something. Rather curiously, Fred followed his gaze. It was then that his eye fell on a filing cabinet's drawer, labeled as _'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous_.'

"Well, well... what do we have here?" Fred wondered, ignoring the sign on it, as he slowly raised his hand to put it on the drawer.

Before he opened it, he looked at his brother, who started to smirk. One exchange of glance was enough for both of them to understand the next step they should take.

"Dungbomb?" George asked, lifting a thin brow.

Fred nodded, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "Dungbomb."

In an instant, George was near the door. He opened it swiftly and looked around, while searching for a Dungbomb in his pockets. After he was sure that the coast was clear, he tiptoed outside again to perform some distraction for Filch. It was a good thing that the Weasly twins were a master in that. In the mean time, Fred had opened the drawer and had grabbed the only object that was there out of it: a piece of parchment.

"Wonder what this is..." he muttered, although he couldn't deny that he was slightly disappointed.

He had expected to find a dangerous weapon that would cut off his fingers as soon as he would touch it, or something, but this...

When they heard approaching footsteps, Fred quickly hid it under his cloak and closed the drawer. He was just in time, because right then, the door of the office sweeped open again, to reveal its mad owner.

"I'll get him someday. Throwing Dungbombs..." he muttered, along with darker things. Then he stopped, looking at the two boys, identical like two drops of water, almost as if he only just noticed them standing there. "You two, get out of my office right now! I've got work to do."

Fred and George looked at each other, a perplexed look crossing their faces. They couldn't believe that they were hearing this. They weren't going to get any punishment at all?

Needless to say, Filch didn't have to tell them that twice, because they swiftly got out of the office. When they were out of earshot and safe enough, Fred got the parchment from out of his pockets again, along with his wand. He looked around to see if the hallway was deserted.

"Wait a second, did we just risk our lives for a blank piece of parchment?" George asked, his eyebrows practically shooting up and disappearing into his hairline.

"I bet it's not as innocent as it looks like. Maybe it's written in invisible ink. Let's see... Reveal your secrets…"

At first, nothing happened, but then letters appeared on the parchment, big, green, curly letters.

_Try again, dear._

"Wow... this thing can actually talk? George asked, amazed. Grabbing his own wand, he ticked on the object and said, "Show us what's hidden."

_Mind your own business and get a bath! You have filth on your nose._

George swiftly rubbed his nose.

"I think that's a 'no,' brother. Hmm... what about 'We swear that we can keep a secret.'

_Mr. Moony thinks that you're close enough..._

_Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, but likes to point out that you're still too far away._

_Mr. Padfoot suggests that maybe you should let the smart people take care of this._

_Mr. Wormtail would like to advise you to take a bath, too, while you're at it. He can smell you from here._

Both of them tried more things, spells included, but the piece of parchment stayed blank, save for the many insults that were directed at them. The funny thing was, though, that it seemed to be giving hints to them as to what to say to make it reveal its secrets.

"Is the fact that it can talk and insult the reason why Filch thought that it was dangerous?" George wondered, curiously. "Or maybe he was wrong?"

"Well, we all know that Filch is an idiot. Just what did he expect to hear from us after asking us if we did all those pranks? "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good? And yes, we actually did it. Good job"? As if!"

Without being aware of it himself, Fred had said that while his wand had been pointed towards the blank piece of parchment.

George suddenly widened his eyes. "Whoa!"

Fred followed his gaze and his mouth dropped open, too. From the spot where Fred had ticked his wand, thin ink lines immediately began to spread on the parchment. They connected, they crossed each other, they penetrated to all corners of the parchment, and then, letters started to appear at the top in the same elegant handwriting as before, which proclaimed:

_Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs  
>Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers<br>are proud to present  
>THE MARAUDER'S MAP<em>

"What the bloody hell _is_ this?" Fred wondered, in awe.

It seemed like a map on which every corner of the castle and the school grounds were shown to the smallest details, but the most notable things were the tiny ink lines that moved over the map and all bore a name in tiny letters.

"It's a map! And look, we're here…" George pointed at two of those dots who were standing on the sixth floor. "And Filch's there… And our great friend Snape near the dungeons... And Dumbledore…"

Bewildered, Fred and George bent closer to the map. According to the heading near a dot in the upper left corner, professor Dumbledore paced his study at that moment, Mrs. Norris was sneaking around on the second floor and Peeves was dancing in the trophy room. And while the twins moved their gaze over the familiar corridors and classrooms, their eyes fell on something else; the map showed a great number of hallways where they had never been before...

"Do you know what this means?"

"I think I do... George, my friend, I believe we're the happiest men on earth at the moment."

"But how are we going to clear it again?" George wondered.

Right at that moment, a speak cloud appeared on the map, near their heads.

Fred bent over slightly to be able to read it. "Mischief managed," he said, tapping on the map with his wand.

That was when the parchment became blank again, without any sign of what it really was.

"That's... ingenious!"

"I smell many, many adventures," Fred muttered, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Let's start with the kitchens, though," George said. "I've always wanted to see what happens there."

"That's an excellent choice," Fred noted, nodding in approval.


End file.
